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Election watchdog censures Pamela Peck for 'blatant' rule breach

Censure for 'super seat' hopeful who used wrong number in election posters

The election watchdog yesterday censured Legco election contender Pamela Peck Wan-kam for choosing a misleading number to represent her candidacy.

The independent contestant for a "super seat" in the district councils constituency had already had a "serious warning" following her repeated, "blatant" breaches of rules, the Electoral Affairs Commission said.

The former radio agony aunt ignored repeated orders to remove incorrect statements on her election posters. She had identified herself with a number "3", as opposed to her allotted number "803", in breach of guidelines.

"It is unforgivable that she blatantly breached the guidelines and made various excuses about her mistakes," the commission said.

It said the number misuse had caused considerable confusion to the city's 3.2 million electors who do not have a vote in any other functional constituencies. Last Friday 120 of the misleading banners were still in place.

The commission said the returning officer of the constituency had received numerous complaints since August 6. Requests were sent to Peck to rectify the matter on August 8 and August 28 - but the results were unsatisfactory.

In the second letter, "a serious warning [was issued] against Ms Peck for her breaching the guidelines".

In her explanation, Peck said her corrected election advertisements were wilfully damaged. She feared the censure - which she said was unfair - would cost her a significant loss of votes in tomorrow's election.

Peck's super-seat rivals include Lau Kong-wah and Starry Lee Wai-king of the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong, James To Kun-sun and Albert Ho Chun-yan of the Democratic Party slates, Frederick Fung Kin-kee of the Association for Democracy and People's Livelihood and Chan Yuen-han of the Federation of Trade Unions.

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Watchdog raps Peck for 'blatant' rule breach
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